


i could never give you peace

by currahees



Category: The Pacific (TV)
Genre: M/M, guess what they get a dog!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:48:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25653130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/currahees/pseuds/currahees
Summary: sledgefu week, 06: healingORthe one where they heal together (and adopt a dog).
Relationships: Merriell "Snafu" Shelton/Eugene Sledge
Comments: 8
Kudos: 20
Collections: Sledgefu Week 2020





	i could never give you peace

**Author's Note:**

> just some softness for you all!  
> come find my on tumblr, user is speirtons <33

Time doesn’t heal all wounds. Sledge can still feel the shrapnel scars across his back and arms. He still feels the ache in his right knee whenever it rains. And he still wakes up screaming some nights, trying to scrub the images from behind his eyes. Time hasn’t been kind to those wounds.

Sledge can also feel the rough burns across Snafu’s arms. He says that they don’t bother him, but Sledge knows the truth. He notices the way Snafu cradles his elbow whenever he spends too many hours at work, the same elbow that has the bullet in it that the doctors said was too dangerous to remove. He also knows that Snafu wakes up in his own sweat and screams on occasion.

Perhaps the only kindness in all of this trauma and injury was that they found each other, Sledge thinks. He doesn’t know how he’d survive this if he didn’t have Snafu there to remind him that he doesn’t care about his scars, or his limp, or his night terrors. That’s the only light in all of this.

Recently, there’s been a new type of healing. Sledge found a stray dog on the side of the road earlier that week and couldn’t leave her there overnight, so without telling Snafu he brought her home. One look from Snafu told Sledge everything he needed to know, she wasn’t going anywhere.

The first night they debate on a name. Snafu suggests Buttercup, Sledge likes Rose better. They end up deciding on neither and call her Flower, Flo for short. The second night they wake up to find her clawing at their bedroom door. After that, they let her sleep on the bed with them. The third night, she’s there for one of Sledge’s nightmares.

Sledge wakes up mid scream, desperately clawing at his own arms. There was so much blood and it was seeping into his skin, he couldn’t get it off, _he couldn’t get it off-_

“Hey, hey!”

There’s a bright light and Sledge takes a minute. He’s not back there, he’s here. In his own bed. Snafu’s next to him, their light on his side of the bed on. And there’s Flo, looking at him with apprehension in her eyes.

He first looks to Snafu, his tired eyes stuck on his boyfriend. “I’m okay,” Sledge breathes, more to himself than Snafu. They don’t ask for details anymore, they don’t need details. They were both there for it all, they know what the other saw.

“I’m okay,” he repeats, looking at Flo this time. He speaks slower, making eye contact with her. She leans forward, gently pushing his hand with her mouth. Sledge reciprocates the movement by scratching behind her ear, letting her know that he’s okay.

Sledge would like to say that after that first night with Flo, the nightmares stop. But that would be a lie. The nightmares continue, although over the months they become less frequent. There’s still the occasional one that’ll leave either Sledge or Snafu ghost like for a few days.

July Fourth is usually rough. Years later and they both still struggle through the night, neither of them falling asleep for more than half an hour or so. It’s their third July Fourth with Flo and neither of them are particularly looking forward to the next twelve hours.

It always starts early in the morning. Snafu is making breakfast when the first firework is set off. “Shit!” He exclaims, dropping his toast and freezing as the sound echoes around the house. Sledge is sat at the kitchen table and while he doesn’t jump like Snafu, he feels it all the same.

Throughout the rest of the day they have a few more scares, although both know what’s coming later that night. A darkness settles over them and they huddle together on their bed, blankets draped over their shoulders despite the summer heat. Flo sits at the bottom of the bed, her head on her paws although she’s not asleep either.

The fireworks start around nine pm and carry on, almost endlessly, until three am. Sledge and Snafu sit there, holding each other and doing their best not to let themselves go back to that place from years ago. At some point during the night, Flo moves from the end of their bed into their laps, her head in Snafu’s lap and her body across Sledge’s. There’s one especially awful round of fireworks around one am that sound identical to machine gun fire, leading to Snafu berrying his head into Sledge’s chest, desperate to chase around the flashbacks. It’s the only night of the year that Snafu truly allows himself to show all his scars and all his trauma, he can’t hide it and there’s no point trying.

At around six am they emerge from their bedroom. Exhausted with bags under their eyes and echoes in their hearts, Snafu sits down at their table while Sledge makes them both a cup of coffee. They’re asleep in less than three hours on the couch, wrapped up in the safety of each other’s arms.


End file.
